A cry in the wilderness

Our editor in chief, Nidal Ayoub, reflects on freedom and why it seems to bother the region's leaders so much.

By Nidal Ayoub

It is the cry of liberty in the public squares of the Arab World.

It is the scream of the press in those regimes that are so organically tied to their rulers that no mark of time appears to affect either the men or the systems.

No hair drops from a ruling head just as no clause is dropped from a text of law unless by some higher “inspiration”.

And, ironically, those mighty regimes are also affected by their masters’ illnesses and only seem to fade away upon their passing.

They have no use for freedom because their matching together would be an explosive combination.

They seem convinced for now that they have locked freedom safely away.

And yet, they guard their palaces and keep their armies alert, afraid as they are that the slightest challenge to their authority might bring the house of cards down.

Pursued by their intelligence services, abused by their investigators, jailed behind bars, and assassinated by their executioners, freedom is nonetheless the permanent cause of their sleeplessness, anxiety and their schizophrenia.

For they must constantly claim obedience to its principles while undergoing negotiations with its partisans.

Along their blood-spattered history, the Arab people have longed for liberty but it is that same history that thought them not to believe in coup d'états, revolutions and wars.

Only one means has proven to be effective in changing backward thinking and repressive policies... the Verb!

From now on, words drawn by ink, by light or by any other form can perform their ability to change worlds via Menassat.com.

Menassat.com is by no means a “Wall of Lamentations” or of immoral graffiti, nor does it give space to unbalanced emotional outbursts.

Our motto is nothing less than: the word wounds in order to heal.

And even if it is a cry in the wilderness, thanks to the new means of communication its echo will be heard far away.